Class blog for Anth 249: Evolution and human disease. We will be responding to class readings and engaging with the wider network of blogs and online content on evolutionary medicine. We might also make up some fun projects along the way.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Responder - Exercise and TEI

Vlad raised an interesting point in his post “A Glimpse at Something
Big” that made me go back and look through the Pontzer et al article. He
posited that the finding “We
hypothesize that human daily energy expenditure may be an evolved physiological
trait largely independent of cultural differences” helps to problematize the
existing understanding of obesity among Western societies and as well as the
fact that for some reason our energy expenditures have remained stable for a
substantial period of human history (From the article - “We hypothesize that
TEE may be a relatively stable, constrained physiological trait for the human
species, more a product of our common genetic inheritance than our diverse
lifestyles.”).

What I found quite
interesting in while originally reading this article was the same finding but
from the other perspective. If the Hadza were to switch to a diet that was as energy
rich as that of contemporary industrial/post-industrial society their
lifestyles would not protect them from the threat of obesity.

What I wonder from this,
is in contemporary societies that consume large quantities energy rich food
consumption – I feel there is often a push to encourage people to exercise (or
positive social stigma associated with it – think Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move
Campaign). If we have maintained the same TEE that this paper posits humans may
have in a Paleolithic past, is exercise in the Western conception of it, wholly
unnatural? Are we actually not at record levels of lethargy but rather are just
consuming way more Calories than we are meant to and are really evolutionarily
not selected for these activities?